MinerU vs paperless-gpt
Short answer
MinerU: Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. paperless-gpt: LLM add-on for paperless-ngx that does better OCR and writes titles, tags and correspondents. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose MinerU if you want: larger community (82.6k vs 2.8k GitHub stars).
Choose paperless-gpt if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional).
paperless-gpt publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
MinerU vs paperless-gpt side by side
| MinerU | paperless-gpt | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document processing | Document processing |
| What it is | Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. | LLM add-on for paperless-ngx that does better OCR and writes titles, tags and correspondents. |
| License | MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) | MIT |
| License type | Custom / conditional | Permissive |
| License conditions | Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 82.6k | 2.8k |
| Last commit | Oct 11, 2026 | Oct 16, 2026 |
| Latest release | mineru-4.0.12-released | v0.31.0 |
| Minimum hardware | 2 GB RAM | Not published |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | Optional. The basic tier runs ONNX models on CPU; the standard/advanced tiers work on CPU with 8 GB RAM (Vulkan recommended). PyTorch and vLLM/lmdeploy engines need a GPU with 8 GB+ VRAM and 16 GB RAM. The official Docker image targets NVIDIA GPUs only. | Not needed for the app itself. A GPU only matters if you run the LLM locally (for example with Ollama). |
| Est. server cost | from €11.99/mo | Not estimated |
| Deploy method | Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs | Docker Compose |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | On by default | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not supported (OIDC not supported · SAML not supported · LDAP not supported) |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | No |
| Details | Full MinerU guide → | Full paperless-gpt guide → |
Key differences
- License: MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). paperless-gpt: MIT (Permissive).
- Official hardware: MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. paperless-gpt: not published.
- Est. server cost: MinerU: from €11.99/mo. paperless-gpt: not estimated (no official RAM figure).
- Deploy: MinerU: Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs · multi-container stack. paperless-gpt: Docker Compose · multi-container stack.
- GitHub stars: MinerU: 82.6k. paperless-gpt: 2.8k.
- Last commit: MinerU: Oct 11, 2026. paperless-gpt: Oct 16, 2026.
- Latest release: MinerU: mineru-4.0.12-released (Oct 11, 2026). paperless-gpt: v0.31.0 (Oct 14, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; GPU: optional / see notes; Status: Active.
MinerU vs paperless-gpt: FAQ
MinerU or paperless-gpt: which should a small business choose?
Choose MinerU if you want: larger community (82.6k vs 2.8k GitHub stars). Choose paperless-gpt if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional). paperless-gpt publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, MinerU or paperless-gpt?
MinerU: from €11.99/mo. paperless-gpt: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.
How much hardware do MinerU and paperless-gpt need?
MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. paperless-gpt: not published.
What is the license difference between MinerU and paperless-gpt?
MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. paperless-gpt: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is MinerU or paperless-gpt more actively maintained?
MinerU: Active, last commit Oct 11, 2026. paperless-gpt: Active, last commit Oct 16, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 27, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, MinerU or paperless-gpt?
MinerU installs via Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs (multi-container stack); paperless-gpt via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). MinerU lists 4 known gotchas and paperless-gpt lists 3; see each app page.
Related
- MinerU self-hosting guide · paperless-gpt self-hosting guide
- All MinerU alternatives, ranked
- All paperless-gpt alternatives, ranked
- MinerU vs PaddleOCR
- MinerU vs Paperless-AI
- MinerU vs Unstract
- PaddleOCR vs paperless-gpt
- Paperless-AI vs paperless-gpt
- paperless-gpt vs Unstract
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- MinerU GitHub repository: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU
- MinerU documentation, MinerU deploy instructions: opendatalab.github.io/MinerU/quick_start/
- MinerU license: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU/blob/master/LICENSE.md
- MinerU hardware requirements: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU#model-engines-with-extras
- paperless-gpt GitHub repository: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt
- paperless-gpt documentation: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#getting-started
- paperless-gpt license: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt/blob/main/LICENSE
- paperless-gpt hardware requirements: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#prerequisites
- paperless-gpt deploy instructions: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#docker-compose
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-25): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub REST API (stars, commits, releases): docs.github.com/en/rest
Every value is generated from the same verified data as the app pages. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.